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Terrorism Bill

The noble Baroness invited me to defer my rather narrow point until a later time, which I think we have reached. I do not want to wait until Report because if we do, it will no doubt be too narrow to discuss. The point is very germane to our discussions, in particular to Amendment No. 45. Let us say that I am the librarian of a university or college with a department of chemistry. A student wishes to study the nature of unstable compounds—another name for explosives—and I have on the shelves a book which I have ascertained is a reputable manual on the subject. The student goes away, starts tinkering with bombs and is arrested. He then says that he was led into this path by my endorsement; and however invalid that may be, it lies with me, if the finger of suspicion is pointed at me by the police, to prove that I did not give my endorsement. Therefore the definition of ““statement”” in this case would not apply to Clause 2; this is just normal language. It is a case of the student’s word against mine and I am asked to prove a negative, which I thought one did not ask people to do in a court of law.